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The software-defined storage market is getting a lot of attention these days, piquing the interest of budget-challenged storage managers. But the lure of software running on the cheap may be misleading if you're not ready for some DIY or to sacrifice some of the features you come to expect in storage systems. We profile the various iterations of software-defined storage, and offer detailed pros and cons of each.

Some say that archiving is one of the key killer apps that will make cloud storage a popular option. There are some compelling advantages to shipping unused data off site, but you need to know about the sometimes subtle differences among these services.

In our 10th Quality Awards for NAS systems, we had one surprise winner -- Synology -- and a NAS pioneer returning to the winner's circle after a short absence -- NetApp. Read about how your peers rank NAS products for their service, support and reliability.